Rita of Cascia was born in the small Umbrian village of Roccaporena in 1381. From childhood she wanted to enter religious life, but her elderly parents arranged for her to be married. Her husband was a difficult, violent man. For eighteen years Rita prayed for the softening of his heart — and, at the end of that long intercession, he changed. Not long after, he was murdered in a family feud. Her two sons, grief-struck, resolved to avenge their father's death. Rita prayed fervently that God would take their lives rather than let them commit murder; both boys died of illness shortly afterward, in a state of peace.

Rita then sought admission to the Augustinian monastery of Cascia. She was refused — three times — because she was a widow, not a virgin. According to the oldest tradition, one night she was miraculously transported into the locked monastery by her three patron saints (John the Baptist, Augustine, and Nicholas of Tolentino) and found inside by the astonished sisters at morning prayer. She was received. She would remain in the monastery for forty years.

In 1441, at prayer before a crucifix, Rita asked the Lord to let her share, even in a small way, in His Passion. One of the thorns from the crown of thorns depicted on the crucifix detached and pierced her forehead. The wound never healed. For the last fifteen years of her life she carried this open wound, which grew infected and gave off a foul odor — so much so that she lived in a kind of enclosure within her enclosure. She bore it in silence, joined to the suffering of Christ.

On her deathbed in the winter of 1457, Rita asked a visiting relative to bring her a rose from the garden of her family home in Roccaporena. It was January. When the relative arrived, expecting nothing, she found a single rose in full bloom on the frost-covered bush. The rose became one of Rita's enduring symbols. She died shortly after, on May 22, 1457. She was declared blessed in 1627 and canonized in 1900.

Catholic devotion to the saints is not worship — it is friendship. We do not ask saints to answer prayers instead of God; we ask them to pray with us, as any friend on earth might. Saint Rita understands impossible situations personally. Everything about her life was humanly impossible — an unwanted marriage, murdered husband, dying sons, a monastery that would not receive her, a wound that would not heal. That is why she hears our impossible prayers. She has lived them.

May 22 — the day of her death and entry into eternal life. In this app, May 22 is marked with a special feast day prayer and blessing.

Saint Rita's incorrupt body still rests in the Basilica of Santa Rita in Cascia, Italy — a small mountain town in Umbria. Every year, millions of pilgrims from around the world make the journey to lay their impossible causes at her tomb. The Augustinian nuns of Cascia continue to receive prayer intentions from around the world and to pray them, one by one, before her relics.

This app gathers the devotional practices historically associated with Saint Rita — novenas, daily prayers, and intentional petition — in a structured daily format designed for the woman who is walking through her own impossible cause. It is not a substitute for the Mass, the sacraments, or the pastoral care of your parish. It is a companion beside them.